Before the Holocaust: Antisemitic Violence and the Reaction of German Elites and Institutions during the Nazi Takeover

Author: Hermann Beck

Before the Holocaust examines the antisemitic violence experienced in this period—from boycotts, violent attacks, robbery, extortion, abductions, and humiliating ”pillory marches” to grievous bodily harm and murder—which has hitherto not been adequately recognized. Beck also analyzes the reactions of institutions that still had the capacity to protest against Nazi attacks. He then examines the legislative measures by the Protestant Church, the Catholic Church, the bureaucracies, and Hitler's conservative coalition partner, the DNVP—as well as the mindset of the elites who led them—to determine their various responses to flagrant antisemitic abuses. Individual protests against violent attacks, the April boycott, and Nazi legislative measures were already hazardous in March and April 1933, but established institutions in the German State and society were still able to voice their concerns and raise objections. By doing so, they might have stopped or at least postponed a radicalization that eventually led to the pogrom of 1938 (Kristallnacht) and the Holocaust.

Hardback

576 pages